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Fred Phelps
'' '' "God hates fags! God hates America! Thank God for dead soldiers! You're going to hell!" - Fred Phelps.﻿---=-dee Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. '(born November 13, 1929) is a disbarred lawyer who is the founder and pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, an Independent Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, that is known for its extreme antagonism towards many factions of society, most notably homosexuals and gay-rights activists. The church uses hate slogans on their picket signs such as "God Hates Fags", "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "America is Doomed". The Westboro Baptist Church is comprised mainly of Fred Phelps' large extended family, and although tiny in number the group is infamous throughout America and regularly receives mainstream media attention for their audacity and the sheer degree of their hatefulness. Members are brainwashed from childhood to support Phelps' agenda and spread his dogmatic beliefs in a manner that can be considered fanatical at best and criminally insane at worst. Biography Early Life 1929-1947 Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. was born on November 13, 1929 in Meridian, Mississippi to Fred Wade Phelps, a railroad police man, and Catherine Idalette Johnson, a homemaker. He has a younger sister named Martha-Jean, who has been estranged from for many years. When Phelps was five, his mother died of throat cancer, and he and sister were raised by his great-aunt, Irene Jordan. Fred Wade Phelps would soon re-marry, however. Phelps was described as having a normal childhood, excelling at school and sports, being an Eagle Scout, and even graduating from high school at age sixteen. When Phelps was seventeen, he was ordained a minster after having a religious experience. He soon left home to preach and became estranged from his family. Adult Years 1947-1991 Phelps began attending colleges around the country, such as West Point Military Academy, which never attended at all, as well as some bible schools. In 1951, Phelps was arrested for assulting a man while preaching, and was even featured in Time Magazine. He moved to Arizona in 1952, where met his wife, Margie M. Simms. The two soon married and had their first child Fred Jr. in 1953. In 1954, the Phelps family moved to Topeka, Kansas. During this time, Phelps got a job as a co-pastor at Eastside Baptist Church. However, the congreation wasn't too happy with Phelps. He would tell the male members that they should beat their wives if they didn't obey them. Phelps was soon voted out of the church, but was made pastor of Eastside Baptist's new branch church, Westboro Baptist. Soon after the WBC was established, Phelps broke ties with Eastside. Several members from Eastside joined Westboro, but some left after Phelps killed a dog with a shotgun after it defacted on his lawn. During this time Phelps and his wife would go on to have thirteen children. Soon, Phelps began to take intrest in becoming a lawyer, and in 1962, he began attending Washburn University. Phelps graduated in 1964, and soon founded Phelps Chartered, a law firm. While he was a lawyer, Phelps began to grow more abusive towards his family. His estranged son Nathan recalls that his father would usually come home in a foul mood, and would take his anger out on his family. Phelps' health also began to get worse too. He started to take perscription drugs, and gain a large amount of weight as well. After nearly dying of a drug overdose, Phelps decied to lose weight. He started to run marathons with his family, and gradually lost weight. But even here, the abuse contiuned, as Phelps would make his family run for up to ten miles a day, and if they beat him home after they were done running, he would abuse them. Phelps would also started to make his young children go around the Topeka area and make them sell candy in order to keep money flowing into the family. He would make the children go into dangerous parts of town such as the red-light district, where his son Jonathon was attacked by a transvestite hooker. As usually, if the children didn't sell the amount of candy as expected, Phelps would beat them. Phelps would take many civil rights cases during this time, and even helped bring down Jim Crow laws in Topeka. According his estranged sons Mark and Nathan, Phelps was a racist, and would sometimes use the initials, D.N. with certain clients, which would stand for "dumb nigger". In 1977, Phelps was disbarred for perjury, which involved him making false claims about a women during a lawsuit, and in 1979, he permantly disbarred in Kansas. His children, however, continue run the law firm for him. Picketing Years 1991-Present Phelps and the WBC began pickting around 1991, in order combat homosexual activities at Gage Park. Although the protests started out small, and gained little attention, the church soon began gaining attention nationwide, the most notable event being the funeral protest of Matthew Shepard in 1998. Around 2003, the WBC began to protest the funerals of soilder killed in Iraq and Afganastan, claiming that they died for a doomed nation. Several laws were soon made to restrain the church protests. While not banning them from picketing, the laws passed made member keep a large distance from the funeral. The church continues to hold daily pickets, but Phelps however has grown absent from them, mostly due his old age and health issues in his younger years. In recent years the church has shown signs of falling apart, due to fact that several members, mostly younger ones, have either left or were kicked out, a lawsuit that made international news around 2006, that was soon brought to the Supreme Court and other factors, such as Phelps' old age may contribute to the falling apart. Beliefs Fred Phelps describes himself and his church as "Old School Baptist", and they follow Calvinist principles as well. Despite his anti-gay actions, Phelps is a Democrat, and ran for both Kansas state Senator and Governer, both of which he lost. Phelps has also show support for people such as Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who even allowed WBC members to come picket there in the late 1990's. However, after Hussein was executed, Phelps claimed that Hussein was in hell. Phelps and the WBC also believe that President Barack Obama is the Antichrist described in the bible, and that his presidency is a sign of the end of the world. Phelps and the church claim that all the tragedies and atrocities in the world are God's ways of "punishing" humanity for "disobeying" his word. They say that God actually hates all people, (except for Phelps' and his followers) who "sin" rather than just sinning itself (according to most versions of the Bible, God loves everyone and will forgive just about anything as long as people actually repent for their sins in life; and some interpret it meaning that anybody who isn't sociopathic may be forgiven, or all will be welcome into heaven eventually), and that he hates homosexuals most of all. They also think that homosexuality should be a capital crime. Church Activites The church regularly praises major tragedies and thanks God for causing them, and stages protests at funerals of victims, insulting the victims and others affected. Some of the church's more notable activities include protesting the 1998 funeral of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was murdered due to homophobic violence, and they have since picketed against a stage production based on his story, and boycotting the funerals of all fallen American soldiers. This practice in particular has generated massive legal controversy where the government has brought into question the protection of the group's activities under the First Amendment, which many argue the group abuses. Opposition The WBC has gathered so much controversy that even the Ku Klux Klan (a group known for its violent hatemongering) have distanced themselves from the organization: as noted by a disclaimer on the Klan's official website ensuring that they have no connections to the church and "absolutely repudiate their activities." Ironically, skin color seems to be the only thing that Phelps and his followers don't discriminate against: Phelps was a Civil Rights Lawyer in the 1960's. However, people have formed counter protests to shield the Westboro Baptist Church's target from them and a man by the name of Chris Mason formed the Phelps-A-Thon, that allows people to donate money to an organization, usually an LGBT or Jewish Group for every minute that the Westboro Church targets that organization, thus the Westboro ends up aiding the group they're against. Another group that opposes the church is a motorcycle club called the Patriot Guard Riders, a group made up of veterans who seperate WBC members from the funeral members. In 2006, Albert Synder, father of Matthew Synder, a fallen Marine whose funeral the WBC picketed, sued Phelps and the church for invansion of privacy, emotinal distress, and other charges. Synder was soon awarded $10.9 million in damages. After much legal disputes, the case was soon brought to the Supreme Court, who ruled in favor of the WBC 8-1. This case brought about much media attention, and many were disapointed by the outcome. In late 2012, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, which the church praised, several online petitions were made using the White House's We The People site. These included banning the WBC from protesting funerals, labeling them as a hate group, and others. All together, the petitions had reached over 400,000 signatures. These petitions were mostly set up by the Internet activest group, Anonymous, who have also hacked the church websites on more than once. Villainy *'Gay Bashing: Phelps and his church's most notable activities are their attitude and actions against homosexuals. Their message of "GOD HATES FAGS" has become infamous. The church claims that homosexuality is the most deplorable of all sins. They also claim that anyone who supports homosexuality is a "fag enabler" and what they're doing is even worse. The church also blaims the death of soilders on Americas tolerance of homosexuality, and the reason they picket funerals of soilders is to get their message across. *'Religious Intolerance: '''Phelps and the WBC have also been hateful towards other religions as well, including Christianty, as the church views themselves as the only true followers of God. The Catholic Church is one their biggest targets, criticizing them mostly due the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, and the WBC even have signs which read; "PRIESTS RAPE BOYS". They have also been critical of the Catholic Church's, as well as the Eastern Orthodox Church's use of idols. Phelps and the church have also been critical of Protestant churches too, criticzing several Evangelical preachers such as Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, and Jerry Falwell, whose funeral they picketed. The WBC is also hateful towards Jews as well. They frequently picket outside of Synagouges, stating that "JEW KILLED JESUS", and even say the Holocaust was God's punishment on the Jews. Islam is another religion criticized by the WBC, claiming that Mohammed was pedophile, and the church went so far to burn the Qur'an on Steptember 11, after Pastor Terry Jones, another WBC target, choose not to. Buddihism and Hindusism have also been targeted, claiming that the followers of those religions should worship God instead. *'Child Abuse:' Phelps has also directed his anger towards his own family as well. Out of his thirteen children, four are currently estranged from the church and family. The estranged children (most notably his son Nathan) claim that their father would abuse his wife and children both physically and verbally, claming that he'd use his fists and soon started using a mattock handle, usually hitting his children to the point of bleeding. The nine children who remained in the church say that these claims are false, and say that they were simply spanked as children. His estranged children also feel that the Westboro Baptist Church is simply a way to direct his anger and hatred, now that his family members are older. *'Murder: '''While Phelps never murderd anyone directly, he may be indrectly responsible for the death of a young woman named Debbie Valgos. Valgos was young woman who had a relationship with Phelps' oldest son, Fred Phelps Jr. Phelps Sr. did not approve of her, and even verbaly attacked her during a sermon which she attended, calling her out as a whore. Fred Jr. and Debbie soon ran away together and got married. Phelps Sr. soon found his son, and forced him back to the church, where later remarried and remains to this day. Valgos on the other hand soon got addicted to drugs, and later died of an overdose. Gallery FredPhelps.jpg|Fred Phelps during a picket. youngfredphelps.jpg|Phelps as a young man. Fred-Phelps.jpg|Phelps giving a sermon. fred-phelps1.jpg|Fred Phelps being interviewed. PASTOR-FRED-PHELPS-001.jpg|Phelps protesting at Matthew Shepard's funeral. WowJustWow.png|A disclaimer on the KKK's website about the WBC. fred_phelps.jpg|Fred Phelps. KANSAS-1-articleLarge.jpg|Fred Phelps with some of the church's signs. Fred_Phelps_on_his_pulpit.jpg|Fred Phelps at his pulpit. Fred-Phelps-God-H8s-300x219.jpg|Fred and his wife Margie, mocking the NOH8 campaign. 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